NASA investigates an aviation accident on another planet

Ingenuity, NASA’s pioneering Mars helicopter, marked an unprecedented milestone in aviation history when it became the first aircraft to take flight on another world.

Its journey came to an end on January 18, 2024, with a final flight that concluded an era of extraordinary achievements.

Journey into the unknown

A team of engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, in partnership with AeroVironment, has given us an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look into the final voyage of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.

Originally designed as a technology demonstration to carry out five experimental test flights over a 30-day period, the helicopter surpassed all expectations.

The little explorer stayed operational for nearly three years, conducted 72 flights, and expanded its flight range 30 times beyond what was initially planned – tallying more than two hours in flight time.

The final ascent: Ingenuity rising against gravity

The 72nd flight, which we now know as the final one, was planned as a short, vertical hop to assess the flight systems and capture images of the surrounding area.

The data sent back from the flight paints a picture of Ingenuity as it ascended to a height of 40 feet (12 meters), hovered, and took photographs.

The descent was initiated at the 19-second mark, and by the 32nd second, the helicopter had touched down, halting communication.

It would not be until the next day that contact was re-established with the mission, and images transmitted six days after the flight showed the damage sustained by Ingenuity’s rotor blades.

Unraveling the mystery: What went wrong?

Investigating an accident from a 100-million-mile distance is no easy feat. Without the convenience of the usual “black boxes” or eyewitnesses, the investigators had to rely solely on the data and images transmitted back.

“While multiple scenarios are viable with the available data, we have one we believe is most likely: lack of surface texture gave the navigation system too little information to work with,” explained Håvard Grip, Ingenuity’s first pilot.

The helicopter’s vision navigation system was designed to track visual features on a flat terrain. It worked with impressive accuracy for Ingenuity’s first five flights, but flight 72 found the helicopter in an area of Jezero Crater that was filled with relatively featureless, steep sand ripples.

This terrain confused the navigation system, preventing it from providing the velocity estimates necessary for safe landing.

The resulting navigation errors created high horizontal velocities at touchdown, which led the helicopter to pitch and roll.

The strain of the rapid landing snapped off all four rotor blades at their weakest point. This resulted in excessive vibration which finally severed the communication.

The legacy continues: Ingenuity’s contributions

Although permanently grounded, Ingenuity’s contributions have not ended. It continues to transmit weather data and avionics test data to the Perseverance rover on a weekly basis.

This information could prove invaluable for future Red Planet explorations. In addition, lessons from the Ingenuity project have sparked research into future Mars helicopters.

“Because Ingenuity was designed to be affordable while demanding huge amounts of computer power, we became the first mission to fly commercial, off-the-shelf cell phone processors in deep space,” said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity’s project manager.

Tzanetos also noted that almost four years of continuous operation suggested that not everything on Mars needed to be bigger, heavier, and radiation-hardened in order to function.

The future of flight on Mars

Inspired by Ingenuity, NASA engineers have been testing smaller, lighter avionics for vehicle designs, particularly for the Mars Sample Return campaign.

The data from Ingenuity is also assisting engineers in developing the concept for a future Mars helicopter.

This new venture, currently named Chopper, is approximately 20 times heavier than Ingenuity, is designed to carry several pounds of scientific equipment, and is expected to explore remote Martian locations while traveling up to 2 miles (3 kilometers) in a day.

Ingenuity has broadened our horizons about the future of interplanetary flight. “Ingenuity has given us the confidence and data to envision the future of flight at Mars,” concluded Tzanetos.

Information for this article was sourced from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL

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